The government has readied the draft of its promised Food Security Act but the bare provisions appear to fall short of the pledge on many counts. It could not only trigger a face-off with the states but also cause heartburn to the Supreme Court and displease Congress chief Sonia Gandhi who had prepared a draft and sent it to the Prime Minister's Office last June. The Bill is a result...
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The Gene Gun At Your Head by Shoma Chaudhury
IMAGINE THE lowly brinjal you have always known turning into a sci-fi gizmo — with an uncharted potency for good and evil. Imagine a food turned into a pesticide — and you will have a measure of the essential uncertainty around Bt brinjal. When Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced his indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal on February 9, he halted a juggernaut that could have swept India to a point...
More »Manmohan’s photo cannot be used without PMO’s approval by Sandeep Joshi
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has thrown a spanner in the works of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which planned to put up huge hoardings of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s photographs along all national highways. Going a step further, it directed all Central ministries and departments not use the Prime Minister’s photographs without prior approval. “Photograph of the Prime Minister cannot be used by any Ministry /Department without...
More »Jean Dreze, Aruna Roy keep off sammelan by K Balchand
Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy, members of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) — governing body for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme — on Tuesday kept away from ‘MNREGS Sammelan 2010’ here, describing it as a “ceremonial function.” In their joint letter to Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi, the social activists, who had played a crucial role in shaping the manual job guaranteeing law, said, “We see little...
More »Private sector may be roped in to hone rural work skill
The Centre is considering seeking the help of private institutions to impart training to BPL households to augment functional capability of workers in rural areas, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Tuesday. Addressing the MNREGS Sammelan 2010, Dr. Singh said integration of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme with the National Rural Livelihood Mission was among the options before the government to not only create job opportunities...
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